Taos News, The (Newspaper) - February 13, 1986, Taos, New Mexico The Taos News 32 Four 46 pages Judge to hear trial By Dick Behnke The trial of John Ramming before District Judge Bruce Kaufman on 24 is ap back on Attorney General Paul Bardacke asked Kaufman to remove himself from the case because the judge was seeking a judicial ap pointment from the Toney Anaya Friday 7 appointed at torney Harvey Furman to fill the position Kaufman was Monday 10 Bardacke dropped his putting the alleged bribery and fraud trial of Ramming and two others back on Ramming was indicted by a grand jury for allegedly receiving bribes as his part in a million misappropriation of disaster relief Two others indicted in the case along with Richard Rowand and Levi pleaded guilty to racketeering Rowand received a suspended sentence and was placed on five years probation by Valdez has not yet been sen Kaufmans decision to suspend Rowands sentence ap to anger for the attorney reports but the decision was not mentioned by Bardacke in his request that Kaufman remove Pete Mondragon and daughter Hallie are scheduled to stand trial in Santa Fe begin ning It now appears that Anaya will be called as a Documents filed with the court show that a for Anaya was issued Ramming said as far as he knew he was not going to sub poena the One member voting set Bombs for breakfast After Taos Ski Valley received nearly three feet of snow from last weeks members of the ski valley patrol were out before the sun Monday 10 tossing explosives into strategic The bombs force unstable snow to John Hanron avalanche while there are no skiers in the making the slopes patrolman Ed Jaramillo winds up for a throw from the top of into the expanse of the ski valleys middle Chair seven is visible By Robin Martin When Taos County voters go to the polls in June they will only be able to vote for one county In the voters could cast their ballots for three commissioners representing all three but the Federal Voters Act and a new state law have changed At Mondays 10 meeting commissioners passed a resolution to create the new The Federal Voting Act was passed by Congress in amended in 1976 and In an effort to provide for fair representation for minority language it requires that municipalities and school districts with populations over a certain level be divided into voting With a population of more than Taos County is included in the The town and school distric ts are too small to be The act is designed to allow members of a minority who live in a restricted area within a as a elect their own As mandated by the New Mexico State Legislature passed a law in 1985 requiring counties to State tor of Elections Hoyt Clifton said 17 New Mexico counties have populations large enough to need com mission and that all have complied with the new In Taos District 1 will include El Prado and District 2 will include Taos Pueblo north to the Colorado Ojo Caliente and Tres District 3 will include Ranches and nearby communities and the southern part of the Telesfor Gon zales represents Taos and El Prado and nearby Julian Romero represents the and John Gaillour the part of the Although the area covered by District 2 is greater than that of the other two the populations are roughly The 1980 census shows residents in District in District and in District The county planning depart ment drew up the boundary County Manager Samuel Montoya said a special meeting was held May 30 to discuss precinct changes and the new At that time commissioners discussed plans for drawing up the boundaries that were ap proved he Districts announced In the next primary and general elections voters will be required to live in the precinct where they an county clerk Beatrice The new county commission districts are made of the following District 1 Taos precincts El District 2 Arroyo Arroyo San Red Tres Ojo Taos District 3 Los de Llano El Las Rio County Manager Samuel Montoya said he plans to give maps of the new districts to each precinct and to post maps in public buildings such as post Inside El Favor y contra opinion A4 Legal Real Regional Want Copyright El FOB YOUR VALENTINE Special stories from special people for a special See Weather High this week was 42 degrees 5 low was 6 degrees Monday The National Weather Service forecasts fair skies with cool tem but warming to seasonal norms by the Highs in the 30s40s and lows from Representatives pass largest tax increase The House passed the largest single tax increase in the history of the state Tuesday 10 and sent the measure on to the Senate for its It will provide for million in recurring revenues and add 10 percent to the states If this tax measure finds favor with the Senate and is signed by Toney it will mean increases in personal corporate and gross receipts taxes and loss of some food and medical said Robert Corn chair man of the House Taxation and Revenue Corn said the measure was taken in response to the worst financial condition New Mexico has ever State legislators spent the early part of the week voting on tax and general appropriations If the tax it may mean added appropriations for state The ap propriation already ap proved by the Senate provides meager budgets for the agen cies on human senior Indians and It does not include pay raises for teachers or state em Taos Carlos Cisneros voted against the ap He voted for several amendments that including seven percent raises for state raises for police no cuts in the Agency for Aging and a smaller increase in state college The Houses version of the ap passed last contained tight budgets for many human needs agen but was not as con servative as the Taos Richard LeDoux voted against A conference committee was expected to meet Tuesday night 11 to iron out differences between their versions of the ap LeDoux sees the tax passage as a good sign that con servatives and Democrats are cooperating better than last He said the tax increase is the best that could possibly come out of but does not reach the spending level for human needs thai is Moly union tries to negotiate while mine closes By Billie Blair and John Hanron president Gene Dewey estimates it will be two to three years before the molybdenum mine here will be able to resume Some 500 workers are expected to receive pink slips parent an the temporary closure last A press release states that about 500 will be laid off at the Questa mine and 100 at the company that processes the molybdenum About 100 miners and some 25 supervisory and clerical personnel will be kept on at Questa to con limited underground Union workers at the Pennsylvania asked management the day after the shutdown was announced if they could negotiate a 20 percent salary cut and continue to process molybdenum from other It would bring the plants average pay down to an The Questa layoffs follow a union vote 31 that rejected a 20 percent salary concession and job COMPANY SPOKESMEN said that some union members requested a second vote last but union president Jake Ortega said he was not of that request being board of directors said it would be allowed only if the union steering committee unequivocally recom mended passage to the But Ortega said as far as the union is con there will definitely not be another vote on the proposal as originally The company has given us a proposal and it has been turned down by a majority of the Ortega This is the democratic way of doing Ortega that the union steering committee has been attempting to get officials back to the negotiating table to try and come up with a different proposal to keep the mine But its efforts have been ignored by company who say that they had told workers before the 31 vote that the proposal was the companys last Ortega said the union committee will be trying to negotiate an alternative plan right up until the end of the in Questa Friday said he felt betrayed by the Im he I was led to believe in private talks that certain things were going to happen and they didn Ortega said he did not know what Dewey was referring and reiterated that the union mem bers made the decision to reject the proposal by Union meetings before each voting period were to answer any questions members had about the Each according to was given a copy of the proposal exactly as it had been presented to the The steering com made no recommendations to The unofficial tally was DEWEY said that because the companys proposal would not have affected worker the overall package which averages an hour when benefits are rolled in would have been cut 13 He compared it to the 33 percent package cut Kennecott Copper is asking of its Ortega had said earlier that the union had no assurances if it accepted the salary cuts that the mine would be open after April and that job reclassification would cause some miners to incur salary reductions of up to 49 Company figures show 35 employees would have fallen into that Dewey He said the company guaranteed to stay open to May 1 and that his personal expectations were that the company would alle to stay open past In his game plan for Dewey said the salary concessions and job would have saved the company close to a month and that increased productivity could have added an additional million in He if the price of molybdenum reached a the company guaranteed the union a J plus Unocal profit which has averaged percent a Dewey said he has no hard feelings about the vote from the rank and Theyve done a hell of a job for Moly theyre the reason the board Unocal hung on as long as it he He said decisions about which supervisory staff will stay on will be made this and that there are no management openings at Unocal headquarters at Los His own position will be by the com board of Union layoffs will be determined according to Any rehiring will come from union The union contract expires 1987 Eleventh hour attempts by various political leaders to mediate were Saul Dewey Friday Its all over
